I made the discovery that when you are traveling on Highway 93 from Arizona into Nevada, you can no longer get to the Hoover Dam (or back); you can only get down there via the Nevada side. There's an exit down to the Dam itself, and there's a place where you can stop and climb up a series of switchbacks, and walk across the bridge itself.

Informational plaques are all along the walkway:

A good shot of the dam itself, as well as the "bathtub ring" which tells you just how much water Lake Mead has lost in the years of the drought --

Self portrait:

Quarter to four, Arizona time; I lost a little time making my usual wrong turn in Boulder (I don't know why I always get lost driving out of Vegas, even in the daytime).

The bridge from the parking area above the Dam, just before I discovered you can no longer drive to Arizona over the Hoover Dam. I had to drive all the way back up through Nevada and across the bridge to get back:

The exposed turbines of Hoover Dam. Somewhere I have some pictures taken back in the 80's, when the reservoir was full:

The walk across the bridge and back was a pretty good walk -- I enjoyed it a LOT.

I didn't get back to Phoenix until 8:30, though.

Current Mood: cheerful

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Wow, those photos are amazing. I always watch those shows on Science Channel and History about the dam. I actually watched a show about the building of the bypass bridge. It sucks that you can only get to it from Nevada. Nevada is now a dam hog.

Silly related joke: What did the fish say when he ran into a wall? Dam!

I was very surprised to reach the top of the old switchbacks and find a dead end!

That is a large part of what they're talking about when they talk about the drought in these parts -- Lake Mead's retreating shoreline is a major concern not only for tourism, but, well, LIFE in the Southwest!

It is a desolate area, that's for sure. A lot of the information on the bypass bridge talked about how the dam itself made such a difference to northern Arizona and Nevada, and how for so many years it was the only way to get there from here.